Antioxidants

In my last post I talked about free radicals and how they damage your body. Today I'll tell you how antioxidants can help. :)

Antioxidants are substances or nutrients in our foods which can prevent or slow the oxidative damage to our body. When our body cells use oxygen, they naturally produce free radicals (by-products) which can cause damage. Antioxidants act as "free radical scavengers" and hence prevent and repair damage done by these free radicals. Antioxidants may also enhance immune defense and therefore lower the risk of cancer and infection.

Antioxidants are nutrients  (vitamins and minerals) as well as enzymes  (proteins in your body that assist in chemical reactions). They are believed to play a role in preventing the development of chronic diseases.

 

We can get antioxidants from our food,  some good examples would be ~

Carrots, squash, broccoli, sweet potatoes, tomatoes, kale, collards, cantaloupe, peaches and apricots (bright-colored fruits and vegetables!)

Citrus fruits like oranges and lime etc, green peppers, broccoli, green leafy vegetables, strawberries and tomatoes

Nuts & seeds, whole grains, green leafy vegetables, vegetable oil and liver oil

Flavonoids / polyphenols

red wine

purple grape
pomegranate

cranberries

Tomato and tomato products

pink grapefruit

watermelon

dark green vegetables such as kale, broccoli, kiwi, brussels sprout and spinach.

The problem is, most of us don't eat enough of these to fight the frree radicals.  Even if we do eat a ton of fruit and veggies, the quality is just not the same as it used to be with our food.

When I was at training, our trainer gave a great example of this.

In 1950 there was 150mg of Vit C in 100gm of Spinach.

In 1963 it went down to 100mg of Vit C

In 1982 down even farther to 63mg of Vit C

and in 1994 down to 13mg of Vit C in 100 gm of spinach.

If you needed 5 fruits and veggies in  1950, you would need 27 to 43 servings a DAY now!   

Here's an interesting article on soil depletion. 

http://www.globalhealingcenter.com/nutrient-depleted-soil.html

Another interesting fact is that when you cook your veggies, they lose some of their nutrients,and if you microwave them, you may as well forget about getting vitamins from them.

Here's another article on that subject~

Don't microwave your vegetables: new research shows that microwaving destroys up to 97% of important nutrients like antioxidants. It is, in fact, the healing phytochemicals that are the most important reason to be easing vegetables like broccoli in the first place. These phytochemicals are powerful anti-cancer nutrients, but blasting them with a microwave defeats the whole purpose.

If you microwave your food, you're killing it. You might as well be eating canned soup or other forms of "dead food." To be healthy,you've got to eat food that still has its nutritional value intact. So what should you do instead? Steam your vegetables. Or eat them raw.

Remember: the less you cook them, and the less they're processed, the healthier all foods really are. Ideally, you want to go straight from the garden to your mouth.

(from http://www.naturalnews.com/000262.html)

The bottom line is, we need antioxidants to fight free radicals, and your not getting the antioxidants you need from your food. So you need supplementation!

These are a few that I currently take,  OPC-3, Vitamin C, Vitamin D3.  If you'd like more info on these follow the link.

http://www.marketamerica.com/index.cfm?action=shopping.wpGoShopProducts

Be good to your body and it will be good to you!!